André Breton

Man Ray, the Surrealism’s official portraitist, is due credit for the most notable portraits of Dalí, Ernst, Giacometti, Tanguy etc., which much contributed to making these artists known. Nevertheless, those of Breton are, doubtlessly, the most numerous and most inspired. André Breton expresses, countless times, his aversion for “the real form of real objects” and, therefore, for the simply objective photography. The will he has to see “books illustrated with photos and not with drawings any more” remains present at all times. It is Man Ray’s and Brassaï’s photographs which are seen on the pages of Mad Love, from 1937. Breton described Man Ray as a “perfect expert of photography and of the lineage of the best painters”, especially because he knew how to go beyond appearances and make photography an instrument of exploration of this region of the soul that “painting thought would be able to reserve for itself”. It is solarization, with its characteristic lining, which bestows Man Ray’s models an extraordinary, almost-unreal aura, as well as brings photography closer to Ingres’ drawing. This technique renders Man Ray’s portrait studio successful in the 1930’s.